THERE is no way we are going to win the war in Iraq, and we should withdraw and accept that we are going to lose on a lot more important level - Afghanistan - if we don't.

Announcing a pullout date would quell the widespread fighting between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds.

Give them a date and it is amazing how people and political parties will stop fighting each other and start working towards a peaceful transfer of power.

OK, you may be tired of hearing me say this. But these are not my words. They are the words of General Sir Michael Rose, former commander of the SAS and head of the UN peace forces in Bosnia in the 90s.

He congratulated Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, for saying British troops were exacerbating the security problems facing Britain and must leave "some time soon."

And for good measure, Sir Michael added: "At last somebody has told Blair that the Emperor has no clothes." Ouch!

Last week, I urged the Army top brass to tell Gordon Brown we should accelerate the pullout from Iraq. Lo and behold, that's precisely what they're doing. Reports at the weekend confirm military chiefs are planning to withdraw all British troops within 12 months.

A senior defence official said: "Britain is not physically capable of fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at the same time. Which do we give up? The government and the defence chiefs have decided that we should give up Iraq."

That should not be the end of the story.

A top-level inquiry, preferably in public, should investigate the lies that took us to war.

HAVING made this country less safe for the rest of us, Tony Blair now wants to make his own life terror-proof. His aides say the outgoing premier wants the road in front of his £4million West London mansion to be closed to traffic.

Gates like the fortifications placed in Downing Street by Thatcher would close off the street even to pedestrians.

Security chiefs fear protesters like Brian Haw, who has kept a pavement vigil outside the Commons for five years, will set up shop outside Chateau Blair. And we can't have that, can we?

The rest of the nation's capital will, of course, continue to be a playground for al-Qaeda.